Traveling valve



Dec. 31', 1957 w. F. LAFFERRE TRAVELING VALVE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 28, 1956 INVENTOR. WILLIAM, F. LAIFFERRE BY 9mm; mm:-

ATTORNEYS Dec. 31, 1957 w. F. LAFFERRE- TRAVELING VALVE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 28, 1956 INVENTOR.

WILLIAM F. LAFFERRE BY ATTORNEYS United States Patent TRAVELING VALVE William F. Latferre, Deerfield, Mich., assignor, by direct and mesne assignments, to Laman Valve Company, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application June 28, 1956, Serial No. 594,552

8 Claims. (Cl. 103-225) This invention relates to traveling valves and more particularly to traveling valves used in the pumping of fluid in oil wells and other similar type Wells.

In oil wells and the like, after the hole is drilled into the ground, a casing is fitted into the hole and in some wells, a tubing is fitted within the casing for the reception of a traveling valve and a standing valve. For the purposes of this application, the term casing will be used to refer to the tube within which the traveling valve and standing valve fits whether or not this be an inside tube or the outside casing tube of the well as the case may be.

The traveling valve is arranged to reciprocate upwards and downwards within the casing and is so moved by means of a mechanical pump on the surface of the ground from which rods extend into the well to connect with the valve. At the bottom of the casing, the standing valve is located to permit passage of oil on the upstroke on the traveling valve and to prevent leakage of oil back into the ground from the casing on the downstroke of the traveling valve. On the upstroke of the valve, the traveling valve should be closed so as to form a vacuum within the casing below the traveling valve which vacuum is held by means of sealing rings connected in some manner to the traveling valve. Because of the vacuum, oil passes through the standing valve and fills the casing beneath the traveling valve. Upon the downstroke, the traveling valve should open to permit the passage of fluid through the traveling valve above the sealing means whereupon this oil is raised to the surface again upon the upstroke of the traveling valve.

The conventional traveling valves now used in the well pumping industry all require a ball and seat valve mechanism with the ball operating to close off the valve on the upstroke and to remain open on the downstroke to permit the passage of oil. However, with these conventional valves, dirt or grit of any type encountered in the fluid will prevent the ball from seating properly and thus prevent a vacuum from being formed beneath the traveling valve. Likewise, the pressure of gas within the fluid will hold the ball up above its seat and prevent it from properly seating. In addition, the problem most commonly encountered and most serious is the presence of parafiin, which being a thick gummy material, effectively glues the ball in its unseated position so that the ball does not seal when required. In these cases, the valve must be bumped against the bottom of the well to loosen the parafiin or other dirt or grit or gas which looks the ball or must be actually removed from the Well for cleaning. The removal of a valve from 'a well is a time consuming, expensive, and quite involved process, since the valve may be many hundreds of feet below the surface of the ground and thus each of the rods which are connected together to connect the pumping mechanism to the valve must be removed and separately disconnected maually. Thus, removal of the valve from the well is highly undesirable and at present must be done every few days, such as for example-every ten days, in order'to keep the valve'in proper operating condition.

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In addition, one other problem involved with the ball and seat type of valve is that the ball is highly eflfected by magnetism and quite often will magnetically lock into an open position.

In my prior application, Serial No. 532,037, filed September 1, 1955, I show one type of traveling valve arranged to eliminate the above difliculties. The invention of this present application relates to the formation of the inside of the valve mechanism which is different than that of my prior application. In addition, my prior application, Serial No. 579,586, filed April 20, 1956, shows an example of a standing valve and relates to an improvement in the standing valve and shows the relationship between the traveling valve and the standing valve.

- The object of this invention is to provide a traveling valve which is not effected by paratfin, dirt, grit, gas or magnetism and which will always operate properly with minimum removal from the well for cleaning purposes.

A further object of my invention is to form a traveling valve wherein the ball and seat joint which is conventional is eliminated and the valving means, in this case a reciprocating piston, is positively operated by a direct force to thus avoid failures to close for any reason and to maintain the valve in proper operating order at all times.

Yet a further object of this invention is to form a traveling valve wherein the valving means is power operated to thus form a tight seal for vacuum purposes when the valve is on its upstroke and to open at the proper time to pass fluids therethrough.

These and other objects of my invention will become apparent upon reading the following description of which the attached drawings form a part.

Referring to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view of the traveling valve hereof, mounted within a well casing shown in cross-section;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the traveling valve, with the inside piston not being cross-sectioned, and showing the piston in the position taken when the valve is on its upstroke;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the valve with the piston partially in cross-section and illustrating the position of the piston during the downstroke of the valve;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken on arrows 44 of Fig. 3, and

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on arrows 55 of Fig. 3.

With reference to Fig. l, the traveling valve generally designated as 10 is illustrated as being mounted within a well casing 11, which may be the casing directly against the ground or may be an inner casing tube within the outer casing. The traveling valve comprises a barrel 12 having depending therefrom a hollow tube 13 upon which are mounted a plurality of sealing rings 1 of the conventional type. The purpose of these rings is to seal the bottom of the casing portion below the barrel off from the top of the casing portion above the oil exit ports of the barrel, as will be described below.

pumping mechanism, which being conventional is not illustrated herein.

Referring next to Figs. 2 and 3, it can be seen that the barrel 12 is centrally and axially bored at 20 to form an opening extending throughout the length of the barrel, Fitted within this bore is a slidable piston 21 having connected at the top thereof a stem 22 fitted Within the upper portion 23 of the bore 20. The stem may be formed as a polygon in cross-section, for example, as a rectangle or hexagon, with the upper portion 23 of the bore likewise being complementary formed so that the stem may slide within the bore axially of the barrel, but may not rotate relative to the barrel.

The top of the stem is illustrated as being threaded at 24 for threaded engagement with a nut 25 having a stud 26 formedon the opposite end thereof which .in turn is threadedly engaged with the pumping rod 15. In addition, wrench flats 27 may be provided on the nut 25 for adjusting the position of the nut relative .to thestem. The nut is arranged to contact the top 28 of the barrel as illustrated in Fig. 3 on the downward stroke of the valve so as to form a limit means for the; piston and also to push the barrel down after the piston has reached its lowermost position.

The piston 21 is axially drilled at Sfifrom the bottom, part-way through the length of the piston. Apertures 31 are formedin the walls of thepiston to communicate the opening with the'outside ofthe piston, and the barrel 12 is provided with exit ports 32 with the exit ports-and the apertures being arranged so that when the 'piston is in its lowermost position, these apertures and exit ports are in alignment for the passage of fluid therethrough. The upper portion of the piston 34 may be formed with alternate lands and groovings 35 and 36 to permit easier sliding within the barrel bore and the barrel bore is provided with a stop portion 38 to contact the top of the piston and to stop the upward motion of the .piston when the valve is pulled upward.

As previously mentioned, a hollow tubing .13 is connected to the barrel, and this connection may be accomplished by forming the top of the tubing with threads at 40 which .threadedly interengage with the bottom of the bore so that the tubing 13 may carry the seals 14 and so that fluid may pass through the center passage 41 of the tubing 13.

In operation, when the pump rod 15 is pulled upwards, the piston moves into the position shown in Fig. 2, and thereafter, the entire valve is pulled upward a distance of two or three feet. Because the piston is pulled upward, the walls of the piston seal off the exit ports 32 and the sealing rings 14 likewise seal off the casing into two separate areas, one below the valve and the other above the valve, so that a vacuum is created and oil is pulled into the casing through the standing valve at the bottom of the well. Likewise, during the upstroke oil which filled the casing above the sealing means '14 is pulled upward to the surface and then out of the well through the ordinary well fluid recovery piping.

Thereafter, the pumping rods 15 are pushed downward so that the piston 21 moves into the positoin shown in Fig. 3, after which the entire valve is pushed downward also a distance of two or three feet. During the downstroke, the exit ports 32 and the apertures 3iv are in alinement sothat the fluid within the well passes through the passageway 4.1 in the tube 13, then through the opening 30 drilledinto the piston and then out through the alined apertures and exit ports. This fluid fills the casing above the sealing means 14 and the process is thereafter repeated on the upstroke.

With this structure, the piston is positively operated by a direct force and is positively pushed downward by a positive force so that it is unaffected by dirt, grit, or parafiin, or thelike. In addition, a tight sealing of the oil exist ports in the barrel is accomplished at all times and finally because the exit ports 32 are small, the surge of fluid through these ports during the quick downstrolze .of the piston within the valve barrel pushes out paraflin collecting in these exit ports and maintainsthese ports clean at all times.

This invention may be further developed within the scope of the following attached claims and accordingly, it is desired that the foregoing description be readas being merely illustrative of an operative embodiment of my invention andnot in a strictlylirniting sense.

Having fully described anoperative embodiment of. my invention, Inow claim:

1. A traveling valve for use in pumping oil wells and the like, comprising a centrally bored barrel for travel upwards and downwards within a well casing and having a fluid inlet opening formed by the bore opening at the bottom of the barrel and fluid exit ports formed in the walls of the barrel at a substantial distance above the bottom of the barrel and communicating the barrel bore with the exterior of thebarrel; means for closing the exit ports on the upward movement of the barrel within the casing and for continuously sealing off the barrel bore above the exit ports to close off the flow of oil through the barrel exit ports during all but'the downward movement of the barrel inthe well'casing; said means for closing the exit ports comprising an elongated piston closely fitted within the bore for reciprocation along the axis of the barrel, an opening formed in the piston from the bottom thereof and extending partially along the length of the piston, apertures formed in the piston walls and arranged in alinement with the barrel .exit ports when the piston is in its lowest position of reciprocation within the barrel, and stop means formed on the piston and positioned to contact a stop formed on the barrel on the downward movement of the piston relative to the barrel, thereby limiting the downward movement of the piston relative to the barrel to the position where the-barrel exit ports and the piston apertures are in alinement with each other.

2. A travelingvalve as defined in claim 1, and wherein a stop means is formed within the barrel to contact a stop formed onthe piston to limit the upward movement of the piston and said piston is provided with a stem extending out through the top of the barrel bore, said stem being formed for connectionto mechanical means for moving the stem and piston upwards within the well casing to first close ofi the exit ports and then carry the barrel upwards, and then downwards within the well casing to aline the piston apertures with the exit ports and then move the barrel and piston downwards within the well casing.

3. A traveling valve as defined in claim 2, and said stop means formed on the piston and on the barrel to limit downward movement of the piston relative to the barrel comprising said stern being threaded at the top thereof for threaded engagement with a nut arranged to contact the top of the barrel upon the downward movement of thepiston to thus form a limit means to limit said piston downward, movement.

4. A traveling valve as defined in claim 3, and said stem and that portion of the barrel bore within which the stern fits being formednon-circular in cross-section and being complementary to each other to nest the stem within the bore for sliding movement along the axis thereof but to preventrotation of the stem within the bore.

5. A traveling valve as defined in claim 1 and including sealing means connected with the barrel for sealing the casing portion belowrthe exit ports from the casing portion at and above the exit ports.

6. A traveling valve for use in pumping oil wells and the like, comprising a centrally bored barrel arranged in an upright position; fluid exit ports formed in the walls of the barrel at a substantial distance above the bottom of the barrel and communicating the barrel bore with the exterior of the barrel; a piston snugly fitted in and slidable upwards and downwards within and along the axisof the barrel, the bottom of the piston being centrally bored and apertures formed in the Walls of the piston communicating the piston bore with the outside of the piston; apiston stem secured to the piston and extending out the top of the barrel for attachment to power means for oscillating the valve up and down within a well casing; cooperating stop means formed on the piston stem and barrel for limiting the downward movement of the piston relative tothe barrel to a position where the barrel fluid exit ports and the piston apertures are in alinement with one another; and second cooperating stop means formed on the piston and barrel TfOl limiting the upward movement .of the piston relative to the barrel to a position where the piston apertures are above and out of alinement with the barrel exit ports, so that when the piston is pushed downwards, the piston moves relative to the barrel to the position where the apertures and exit ports are in alignment for the passage of fluid therethrough and upon further downward movement of the piston, both the piston and the barrel move downwards together, and upon upward movement of the piston, the piston moves relative to the barrel to the position where the apertures and ports are out of alinement to thus block the passage of fluid through the valve and upon further upward movement of the piston, the piston and barrel both move upwards together.

7. A traveling valve as defined in claim 5 and said piston stem and that portion of the barrel bore within which the rod fits being formed non-circular in crosssection and being complementary to each other to nest the stem within the bore for sliding movement along the axis thereof but to prevent rotation of the stern within the bore.

8. A traveling valve as defined in claim 5, and said stop means for limiting the downward movement of the piston stem relative to the barrel comprising the stern being threaded at the top thereof and a nut threadedly engaged with the stem above the top of the barrel and positioned to contact the top of the barrel upon movement of the piston downwards relative to the barrel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,275,420 Graves Aug. 13, 1918 1,761,876 Crull June 3, 1930 1,799,415 Fowell Apr. 7, 1931 

